beauty reviews & other musings

August 6, 2017October 4, 2017

BECCA x Jaclyn Hill Champagne Pop

“Late to the party” should be my middle name, shouldn’t it? A little while ago, I finally got my hands on this nouveau-cult highlighter from US brand Becca (stylised as BECCA), which is beloved by pretty much all in the beauty community. I’d been umm-ing and ahh-ing about it for a bit, but as soon as I saw this limited edition anniversary edition I jumped right on to Cult Beauty and grabbed it.

As you may or may not know (and if you don’t, where have you been?) Champagne Pop was a collaboration between Becca and beauty vlogger extraordinaire Jaclyn Hill – it’s a pressed powder highlight in a gorgeously rich champagne shade that’s intended to suit all skin tones. This ultra-cute limited edition comes in a compact with rosy-champagne detailing rather than Becca’s standard soft-rubber brown, so it looks extra pretty sat on your dressing table. That’s not the best part however – JUST LOOK AT THIS PAN. LOOK AT IT. Sorry, this is just too exciting for me – the pan has a little champagne bottle and bubbles pressed into it! I almost didn’t want to use it so it could stay like that forever, but then my urges got the better of me (it’s still mostly there though).

Onto the actual highlighter itself, the formula is very soft and buttery, and swatches so nicely without any patchiness or chunky glitter. As I mentioned earlier, it is definitely a champagne tone rather than a white, pink or straight-up gold, but I find this lends a really nice warmth to the cheeks (if you like your highlights icy then this probably isn’t for you), and I really prefer warm tones. I was a little dubious about the shade, being ultra-pale, however when applied in the right way this looks totally beautiful and not too dark – though I reckon some of the other shades Becca offer might be more for me). I think a light hand and a fan brush work best with this, so that you can focus it right on the high points and not bring it down too low.

This is not the softest and finest powder glow out there, since it’s pretty bling-bling and blinding, but it’s definitely not chunky or glittery, and the fallout while applying is minimal. It also won’t emphasise facial texture too much, which is something I struggle with due to acne scarring and general unevenness. As you’d hope from something that’s a little more up-there in price, it also has pretty great staying power – for me, it wears all throughout the day, despite most of my makeup sliding off my face (honestly, do I even need highlighter when my face is so freakin oily?).

For me, this was 100% worth the purchase, and I’ve been using it pretty much every day since it arrived – the shopping experience on Cult Beauty was pretty fantastic too, as they had free shipping on all Becca products in June AND I used a 15% off code, so it wasn’t too much of a splurge. I’m also dying to try more face products from Becca, like the other shades in this highlighter (Moonstone looks pretty) and their blushers – this is my first purchase from them, and it’s done a good job of getting me hooked since I just want to use Champagne Pop for the rest of eternity.

The standard pricing here in the UK for this is £32, with the limited edition available here from Cult Beauty (Space NK also stock Becca) – it’s completely worth checking out in my opinion, especially if you’ve held off during all the hype (like I did – maybe “Late To The Party” should be a new series on here…).